Unexpected
by 23NScott
Summary: Often certain desires have unexpected consequences. I, Haley James, had one such desire - Nathan Scott. And the consequence left me shocked.


**DISCLAIMER: I own no rights to One Tree Hill or anything related to it. No copyright infringement intended.**

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_CHAPTER ONE._

Remember the feeling that you get when you're walking on a square-tiled floor and you do your extreme best to avoid those little lines in between two tiles and yet when you do accidentally manage to step on those lines, you feel like ripping your hair out and scream out in childish frustration but secretly enjoy the James Bond _ish _thrill you get the entire time?

Well?

You do, right? Because if it's otherwise, then what I'm about to say next will probably make as much sense as my question above did if not worse.

So…where was I?

Yes. Square-tiled floors and thrill.

Falling in love with Nathan Scott was completely like that. Only the frustration and the thrill were ten-fold in this case.

Confused? Don't be. Let me start from the beginning.

I was ten years old when I first laid eyes on the gorgeous blue-eyed half brother of my best friend. I remember sitting on a rusty bench, reading a book while my best friend, Lucas Scott, ran around shooting hoops on the court. It was a quiet afternoon, with nature being as glorious as often depicted by poets, shared by two best friends who had no care in the world.

When, all of a sudden, I heard loud footsteps clobbering over the cemented path approaching towards our area. I looked up from my book with an annoyed look on my face.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was a mistake. Because, you see, the distracting noise turned out to belong to Nathan Scott. I remember him coming to a standstill as soon as he saw me. A part of me fluttered in excitement that I could make a dark-haired ten-year old halt in his place with my charm (in this case, my annoyed expression). Yes, I'm delusional at times.

But the sensible part, the ten-year-old matured part in me, knew that my impossible dream wasn't true.

I remember the ball falling from Lucas's hands as soon as he caught the sight of our unwanted guest. The jaw set hard, the mouth pulled into a thin line and the fists clenching slowly were all the evidence I needed to support my hunch that Lucas was absolutely furious. Livid, to be precise.

I heard Lucas mutter something to Nathan. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"What do you think, Pucas? I'm going to play here," came the arrogant response.

At that moment, I gently closed my book down and placed it on the table, and immediately walked up beside my best friend. He needed my support, and I was sure as hell not going to back down on my friendship just because of some stupid…hot…stupid guy.

I was well aware of the Scott drama. Being a small place, Tree Hill wasn't a place where one expected secrets and gossips to be quiet and hushed up.

Once upon a time…okay, this might have been a tad too much…Dan Scott, the town mayor, had a girlfriend when he was in high school named Karen Roe. In their senior year, Karen found out that she was pregnant and – thanks to Dan's I'm-baling-out-because-my-dreams-are-more-important-than-my-child attitude – alone (for only a short while though). Karen ended up having Lucas, and decided to keep the name 'Scott' for him; and as it turned out, she too ended up carrying the 'Scott' name with her quite gracefully and cheerfully later on. The reason for both mother and son bearing the particular name was because of Keith, Dan's elder brother and the knight in shining armor in Karen's life during senior high. Lucas later told me that Keith had always loved Karen, but could never express it because of Dan. When he saw Dan fucking up, he decided that he could not leave Karen there helpless…and it was also an opportunity to maybe start a new relationship which was successfully reciprocated resulting in a marriage after graduation.

Meanwhile, Dan was absolutely enraged after knowing about the news, and in a mood of rage, left Tree Hill only to impregnate his college girlfriend, Deb. He married her, sacrificed his dreams of playing basketball, and raised Nathan in Tree Hill (yes, he came back). After building up a company and training Nathan to play basketball and to hate his half-brother, Dan became the mayor of this town. So yes, Nathan and Lucas loathe each other from the cores of their hearts, all because of Dan Scott's misplaced arrogance.

One must wonder how on earth a ten-year old managed to have such a detailed explanation of some family drama. Well, my answer to that will be in three parts – firstly, it the _Scott_ family drama, enough said; secondly, my parents aren't quite exactly the cautious type when it comes to suspecting their daughter overhearing their living-room discussions; and thirdly, it's Tree Hill, a small place where continuous stares and hushed whispers eventually end up opening your minds to the rumor-mills.

Anyway, coming back to my first meeting with the guy who frustrates me like hell, and whom I love like an angel.

I saw his focus being shifted on me as I stood beside Lucas defiantly. My confidence started wavering when I saw his raging eyes soften at me, enabling a blush to color my cheeks pink. I smiled softly at him, sure that Lucas wouldn't be able to see him; and felt my insides tingling with excitement when I saw him returning the same. It would have been the perfect moment to write in a romance novel, but reality felt different.

"What the hell! Stop smiling at her, you stupid-face," Lucas yelled out of the blue as he took a defensive stance in front of me.

I promise I had no wrong intention when I thought of pushing him away at that time just so that I could continue the little smiling game with my blue-eyed crush. Till this day, I feel extremely fortunate to not have carried out my crush-hazed plan of pushing my best friend away. Why?

"Hah! I was just laughing at the fact that it's kind of cute how two pathetic dorks found love."

That's why.

Seeing a smirking Nathan retorting the above words back, while taking a judgmental glance at me, completely pierced my foolish bubble at a happily-ever-after with him. The tears pricked my eyes and I was trying my best not to show him how much his words humiliated me. I could feel Lucas ready to pounce at him. But then I decided that Nathan Scott was not worth it. Not worth the pain, the hurt, the tears.

"Let's go, Lucas. He won't be interested to play here tomorrow. It's beneath him." I spoke softly, the entire time not wavering in my hard stare at the trees ahead.

In hindsight, that was definitely an extremely childish act to do – ignoring a person instead of facing a confrontation. But it was definitely a better alternative.

Surprisingly, I felt relieved when Nathan never showed up the next day, or any other day afterwards. Call it luck or call it guilt, whatever made him to take the decision of never interacting with me till junior year made me happy. So for the next six years, I ignored the silent stab at my heart whenever I crossed paths with him in school, learning to accept and move on and remain happy with my best friend.

Until a basketball match shifted the foundation of my world.

**_Four months earlier…_**

"Hales." Nathan moaned against my neck as I arched even further up against his body.

We were sprawled on his king-size bed with our clothes strewn across his room. I couldn't believe that this was my first time. I felt…alive and…enriched by the way his exotic touches were making me feel. Emotions that I never thought existed outside fictional romance books started to stir within me, and the reality was infinitely better than what I thought would be.

I pulled his face towards mine and silenced him with an intense kiss. Breaking free for an immediate need for air, I looked up at his face and felt my body heat rising up with the lust he had in his deep blue eyes.

Our chests were flushed against each other. I closed my eyes at the growing sensation of throbbing between my thighs. Just then, in midst of such a life-altering incident, a painful thought struck me.

"I haven't done this before," I blurted out. My eyes went wide open at the revelation that just came out of my mouth. But the overpowering insecurity of not being able to compete with the perfect figure girls he had been with was too much for me to control my words.

He looked at me with a sense of…adoration. What? Why is he looking at me like that? Is he going to laugh at me? I can't have another heartbreak that is courtesy from Nathan Scott. Why is he –

My thoughts were silenced by his lips traveling over mine. I responded in accordance, not sure of what to do or say.

"Hales," he finally said, after tearing away from the kiss, "do you want me to stop?"

I felt my jaw dropping at his question. Did I officially ruin this? Why is he throwing me away? Why does he want to stop?

"Why do you want to stop?" I muttered in my raspy voice. He propped up on both of his palms as he hovered over me with his ruffled hair and sincere face heightening my attraction for him.

"I don't want to pressurize you. Look, I know what you said earlier. But." He took a deep breath. "If you want, we can stop. I promise."

I looked down to see his stark naked body and decided that this must have been extremely hard (pun definitely intended) for him.

How is it possible that this guy was so mean to me for the past six years? How? How in the fucking hell?

"You were great today. I cheered for you." I should probably just bang my head against a wall for abruptly changing topics in such a hard (again, yes) situation.

He looked confused for a second before replying. "Yeah?"

"Yeah."

He looked as if he wanted to say something, but when he didn't, I continued.

"Nathan," I said, wrapping my legs around his waist and my hands around his neck, thereby creating no space between our bodies. "I want this."

He smiled at me before swooping down to kiss me again and as he positioned before me, I stayed thankful for taking the pill this morning because the insatiable need I had within me couldn't have waited a second longer for him to even use protection.

Once he entered inside of me, all I could think was, _this was completely worth it._

…

Two hours later, we were still on his bed. Me, lying with my hands fiddling with the hem of the white sheet over my body; and him, with his hand draped over my sheet-clad stomach.

"Stop."

I turned my head slightly to face the owner of the husky voice that broke my trail of thoughts.

"Stop what?"

"Thinking," he replied. He looked at me before kissing me softly on the lips.

"How did you know that I was thinking?" I responded, kissing him back.

He simply shrugged. "I just do."

"Ah, the ego strikes again." I playfully rolled my eyes at him.

He chuckled. "You think you're so funny, don't you?" He glided his lips across the side of my jaw before placing them against my lips.

After a long while of making out, I finally proceeded to make my way out of his bed and towards my own.

"Stay the night," he whispered, unexpectedly. "Please," he added.

Biting my lip, I pondered on the question. I knew what were at stake from the very beginning, and since I came this far, I might have as well stayed the night. Plus, his pouty lips and pleading face made it impossible to deny, not that I even wanted to in the first place.

I nodded and grinned against his lips.

Just then, like a buzzkill, my phone started ringing. Nathan groaned and reached for it. Shaking my head vigorously, I said, "Give that to me. It could be –"

_Lucas._

The name blinked on the screen as I grabbed the phone from Nathan's hand. I tried to steady my erratic breathing before I answered the call.

Shit. I was such a horrible friend.

**_Back to the present time…_**

Remember what I implied earlier about the thrill of tiptoeing around something you knew you wouldn't be able to overcome?

This is exactly what I meant.

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**-X-**


End file.
